GOP torn: Clean house or shield members?

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner took his job last year with a pledge to cleanse his party's scandal-stained reputation on Capitol Hill. In recent weeks, Boehner has been getting an unpleasant education in how hard that turns out to be.

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When Reps. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) and Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) became the subjects of FBI raids, Boehner pushed them to give up their committee assignments. But party operatives said Doolittle and Renzi are not facing pressure to resign from the House for now -- in part because the House GOP campaign committee does not want the expense of competing to keep their seats in a special election.

And Boehner is coming under fire from his own members over the decision to replace Doolittle on the House Appropriations Committee with Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.). Calvert himself is facing ethics scrutiny over a land deal in his Southern California district.

The Calvert decision underscores the complexity of Boehner's task, as he tries simultaneously to clean house and keep peace within his own caucus. The California delegation was insistent that the coveted Appropriations seat go to one of their own, following long-standing custom. But the move has upset other GOP members and some conservative bloggers, who fear that Calvert's alleged problems will feed the party's reputation for corruption.

"If only John Boehner the Republican leader would act like John Boehner the leadership candidate, the Republican Conference would be in a much stronger position," said a House Republican aide who works for a lawmaker upset with Boehner's move. "Decisions like the Calvert appointment cripple our party's ability to be associated with reform, and until our leadership changes direction, they are leading this conference even further into the political abyss."

In a sidewalk interview, Boehner defended the choice that he and others on the House GOP steering committee made to elevate Calvert. He acknowledged that geographic balance was one factor driving the appointment -- one that proved more important than questions raised in a Los Angeles Times article about Calvert's land sale.

"Where do you draw the line?" Boehner asked. "We do not want a blanket allegation to rise to the level of credibility where we are basing our decisions on it. It's unfair."

The Times article last year detailed how Calvert sold land at a steep profit after sponsoring a spending "earmark" for a highway interchange 16 miles from his property.

Doolittle's and Renzi's legal concerns are an obvious albatross for Republicans as they seek to take back the majority they lost in 2006. Even so, Republican aides and lobbyists familiar with operations at the National Republican Congressional Committee said operatives there are rooting for Doolittle and Renzi to finish their terms (though not necessarily run for reelection) so the campaign committee doesn't have to finance a costly special election.

The NRCC remains millions of dollars in debt from last fall. And Democrats have their eyes on both seats, meaning a special election would cost millions for both parties' campaign committees. Competing for Renzi's sprawling district in northern Arizona would be especially expensive, since Republicans in recent elections have had only a slight advantage in voter registration.